Honored with individual awards were Frances McDormand, Gary Oldman, Allison Janney and Sam Rockwell for performances in motion pictures, and Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård, Claire Foy, Sterling K. Brown, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and William H. Macy for performances in television. The Screen Actors Guild Awards originated awards for the outstanding performances by a motion picture cast and by television drama and comedy ensembles. The Actor for a motion picture cast performance went this year to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while the Actors for television drama and comedy ensemble performances went this year to This is Us and Veep.

Rita Moreno presented Morgan Freeman with the 54th Life Achievement Award, following a filmed salute to the Academy Award winning actor, producer, voice actor and activist, which mirrored when Freeman presented Moreno with the 50th Life Achievement Award. Felicity Huffman introduced a filmed “In Memoriam” tribute to the SAG-AFTRA members lost during 2017. In keeping with the SAG Awards tradition of highlighting the work of SAG-AFTRA members, SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris introduced a montage that illustrated the union’s diversity and the wide range of its members’ professional skills.